Compare Multiple Metrics Cumulatively in Power BI using DAX

I’ve previously showcased how you can compare your actual results versus your budgeted results. But, what if you also wanted to overlay some time comparison information so you’re comparing your actuals versus budget versus last year? Or perhaps versus last quarter? Or against any other time period you may want to select?

In this video and via the example that we work through, I’m going to show you how you can combine all of these, using time intelligence and budgeting analytical techniques in Power BI.

It’s seriously powerful stuff and it’s amazing how easily you can actually bring this all together.

Historically, it was really difficult to overlay lots of different analytical techniques on top of one another. In Power BI, by utilizing not only the power of DAX but the power of the data model behind the scenes, you can extract powerful insights with ease.

If you also look to bring the information into cumulative totals, you can actually identify trends as they happen in very quick time. I’m a big fan of cumulative totals for this very reason.

I’m also going to show you how you can extend these results even further, by using measure branching techniques within Power BI to calculate the differences between all of these results.

There may also be some seasonality in your data and performance numbers due to summer or winter months, or sales periods, or discounting periods, so this type of analysis is really going to highlight this well.

Being able to identify these things and being able to compare your actual results versus a variety of benchmarks produces powerful analytical results. Power BI makes this far more intuitive to bring together. Consumers are going to be very impressed with the type of analytical work that you’ll ultimately be able to throw together pretty fast inside of Power BI.